Bread’s Long History

Known as the ‘staff of life,’ bread is one of the oldest foods known to mankind.

Around 10,000 BC, humans first started eating a crude form of flatbread—a simple, baked combination of ground cereal grains and water.

Similar flatbreads are still made today including Iranian lavashes, Mexican tortillas, Indian chapatis, Scottish oatcakes, and Middle Eastern pitas.

The ancient Egyptians are considered to be the first to have baked leavened bread; by 3,000 BC they began to ferment a mixture of flour and water using wild yeast. They then developed ovens, which could bake several loaves of bread at the same time.

Bread for the rich was made from wheat flour, while bread for those less wealthy was prepared with barley, and bread for the poor used sorghum.

The Egyptians revered bread so much they would often place it on the tombs of their dead.

They also used it as currency. In fact, the workers who built the Egyptian pyramids were paid in bread!

The Ancient Greeks learned how to make bread from the Egyptians, and by 2,500 BC were producing more than 80 different types of bread. The Greeks were instrumental in spreading the popularity of bread throughout Europe.

In 150 BC, the first Baker’s Guild was formed in Rome, which made bread exclusively for the rich but also gave bread to the poor in times of need.

In 1266, bakers in England were ordered to mark each loaf of bread to ensure their bread conformed to the weights required by law. These bakers’ marks are among the first trademarks known to mankind.

If a baker’s loaf was deemed to be underweight, the baker would be fined, so they would add an extra loaf to every dozen, giving birth to the ‘baker’s dozen.’

In the Middle Ages in France, bakers would loan out bread as currency and a form of credit, which is probably why King Louis IV said, “He who controls a nation’s bread is a greater ruler than he who controls their souls.”

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Rosane Oliveira, DVM, PhD

Rosane Oliveira, DVM, PhD is Founding Director of UC Davis Integrative Medicine and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Public Health Sciences at the School of Medicine at the University of California Davis. Blending a life-long passion for food and nutrition with over 20 years of scientific experience in genetic research, Dr. Oliveira is devoted to educating people about how food and lifestyle choices can affect genetic expression–i.e. how genes are turned on and off and either cause disease or promote health. She is a native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and has lived in the US since 2003.